AI do the exact same as Kathy loubee. Seems to work for me too! Although the frozen cake I did recently was just buttercream then chilled for an hour and then covered, same result!

Kathy it's extortion. Honestly it makes me laugh when people say eat healthy and exercise. How do poor people do it? You walk in to any supermarket and the beg and fruit is up in the £1-4 brackets. Yet you can buy a huge milkshake, one of those microwave burger things and a bottle of full fat coke all for less than £1 each. There's no wonder the morbidly obese are that size and usually it's the poorer people who end up like it. It's so sad!

We generally eat quite healthily anyway. Three set meals which is usually porridge and fruit for breakfast or croissant with fruit. Then lunch is more or less something like an omelette or a chicken salad and then dinner we have steak or lasagne or grilled fish which we always have veg and rice or potato with. I mean everyone snacks inbetween... Biscuits and coffe, yoghurt, coffee and cake, chocolate? But now I'm stuck to buying all organic and it's killing me! God help us because I'm starving and someone is gonna get a beat down one of these says if I don't get some sugar!

Loubee I do the same as Kathy with ganache when covering with fondant. Looking forward to seeing the finished cake.

Kathy I'm loving the sprinkles cakes to, who knew sprinkles could look so good on a cake. I love the upside down method but have only done it on round cakes so far. I love the board on top method for square cakes you get really sharp corners. 

Thanks all x

Kuuush when did it become wednesday? I thought we said Monday ....oh pants 

ATidds, nanny said earlier in the weeks she's got her Grandson so could we move it to Wednesday. Awh please say you can come!!!

AHi guys. :-) I've been such a good girl today, I banned myself from here til I'd done all my chores!

Lovely sprinkles cake Suzanne, that's on my to do list too. Leah loves them, every time she sees one she says "oooh spwinkles"! I could do one for her birthday for school couldn't i?

I took my cake frame out of the box roxy, looked at it and put it all back! Looks a bit complicated to me!

Get well soon nanny and John. Leah's suffering too, she won't be going back to school next week if she's still like this.

I do the same with ganache as Kathy loubee, I don't smooth and repair that much tho, maybe I should!

Well done and good luck to Sophie Kathy. She'll be fine in Milton Keynes, I'm sure they're used to seeing shy, nervous people. And perhaps it being all day will be better for her, maybe she'll have a chance to get a bit more comfortable and be more confident.

How are your cakes coming along Jean?

Lol I haven't Maisie I have avoided the ironing and opted for a nice bath instead. I hope Leah feels better soon.

It's not as complicated as it looks Maisie, I think if you start with one of the cakes from the book in the starter pack you will be fine with it. I didn't do this and should have, if I had I wouldn't have ended up with a cake that I couldn't use. Why don't you try one of the easier looking ones such as the flower pot cake and see how you get on with it.

AErm, lol Roxy, I didn't exactly say I'd done all my chores! I might've accidentally implied it, but I didn't say I had! :-D

I don't think I had a book with mine. :-( I'm sure it was the starter pack I bought tho.

ADidn't mean to post then. Flower pit sounds good with Mother's Day coming. :-)

AThanks Kelsey, Roxy and Maisie. It's really the same as I do with my buttercream covered cakes.

You're completely right regarding the price when eating healthy, it costs an absolute fortune and like you say it's not surprising that people go for the unhealthy choices. Has anyone been watching the programme with Greg Wallace on a Thursday night - eat well for less, it's really interesting and also so surprising watching the way that people shop, to me the things they're advising are just common sense but obviously to some people (ie the ones in this programme) they're not.

Maisie you should have got a leaflet type booklet in the box with your starter pack showing how to make ten cakes using the cake frame. If you don't have it I can always scan it and send it to you. Here is a pic of the flower pot cake that is in the book.

Loubee I have been watching eat well for less, I find it interesting the way people just think because it has a brand name it is always better than a cheaper or alternative brand. I really am shocked when they say how much they spend over the year on food shopping especially when they say if they made the changes on this meal they would save so much a year. It makes me laugh to when the family are saying no I don't like this bread or jam etc it's nowhere near as good as our usual one I don't like it at all it is definitely a swap and it's the exact same one they always have. It just goes to show how different we see things when they are in bright colourful packaging.

AHi all. I've had a very tiring two days. Finished the toppers this afternoon and cake only just finished an hour ago. I had big problems trying to copy the tutorial I'd purchased so as usual I'm not happy with the end result. I just couldnt shape the SP the way it said in the instructions so i altered the design a bit. Sigh. I'll post photos tomorrow.

Loubee, same as others, I let my ganache set, do some touch ups, hot knife, then SP.

Nanny, hope you and john feel better soon.

Maisie, hope Leah gets better soon too.

AHey all, MIA again. I'm running a conference this week in Poole, so been prepping hard for it. On the flip side, it's in a very nice hotel, so I'm going down today to get set up and may visit the pool and spa this evening. Don't get back until Tuesday night and have a three tier Gatsby cake for Friday so it's going to be a full on week... eeeek!

AWow everyone seems so busy.

Good luck to your daughter Kathy...interviews are horrible and very nerve inducing....the interviewers should know this, so she will be fine. Milton Keynes whilst being a modern town is very well transport linked ~ right on the M1...just allow LOTS of time for the M1 as the M1 roadworks WILL add a good 45 mins - one hour to the journey....or just go by train!

I like the 'old school' cake, just the sort of cake my Mother inlaw would like....I just wish my finishing was that neat.

Very neat sprinkles Relznik as always :)

I'm sat in a hotel in Newark (!!!!) as we came to Southwell for the weekend...only everywhere was fully booked in Southwell so we came a good 10 miles away....this wifi is a bit intermittent as well :/ I'm off out for the day in about 10 mins.

Plans for this week are a simple round film reel cake for my Father inlaws birthday...his birthday was last week but I was too over wrought with work and all the family issues so he doesn't mind it being 10 days late!!! He'll be happy just to get one :)

I met up with my sister yesterday and pinned her down about the Rockabilly cake and she sounds happy with what I described....she's not sure about the square wedding stand base so I told her I would hire it anyway and on the day we can always decide not to use it if she doesn't like it.

Hmm Mothering Sunday cakes....that sounds like a good excuse to practice some odd looking flowers...at least mine will be odd looking :D

AMorning all.

God what is happening, just taken an order for 3 boxes of Mothers cupcakes, won't turn her down as she is so regular bless her, just have to fit them in after delivering my wedding cake on mothers day to Cardiff.

Also tidds, maybe old school is on the up, got an oder for 2 anniversary cakes (for the same person) 10inch square with apricot roses and white freesias, it's the same as her wedding cake all of 50 yrs ago, and wait for it, royal icing shells around the base, arrrggghhh, good job we did royal icing piping in class last yr.

A

I totally agree Roxy, it really made me laugh regarding the jam and it being the same and the marinated chicken fillets too, like you say it does prove that the packaging has an impact and it proves that a lot of it is in our mind. I always buy things like pasta in the supermarkets own brand as they're can't be any difference from the branded pasta.

I'm so tired today other half got back at about 2.30am from London, 4.15am the neighbours are banging on the door that a car has hit his recovery truck, apparently some kids at a party took the girls mums cars and smashed a few metres down the road smack bang into the other halfs truck, of course they ran off but luckily some of the neighbours saw them. So we was up until 6am with police etc... Sorting it. I'm so tired but got lots to do today.

Marvel good luck for your conference, I'm sure it will be fab.

Oh come on Nanny! You'll blitz it, you always do! haha! Does she want the rose ones?

I haven't watched that programme really, but I can agree with a lot of the things you've said!

Personally I don't buy a lot of branded items that are basics...

I do like Nescafe Gold Blend for my coffee and I like M&S Luxury Gold tea but apart from that I tend to go for the supermarket own and that's only because I've tried the cheap versions and I don't like them not because of the packaging.

Pasta, Rice, Potatoes (who buys those rooster ones? They're so expensive!) Milk, etc...

I even choose loose fuit and veg over pre-bagged. I think I saw it somewhere before about a bag of bananas which was with a red £1 sticker, but when they put it on the scale you print the label out of it came to like 57p! You could either have double for what you're paying, or pay half the bill! Everything that comes loose, I choose loose.

These days I do a whole day for shopping and I go to ALDI for my fresh fruit and veg, fruit and pasta and rice and cheese and milk. Then off to Tesco for all the other stuff I can't get in ALDI, then to M&S for my tea and hubby loves the choc chip cookies from there and finally to Iceland for eggs (20 large eggs for £1.60) I pick up other things too. If I see a deal on though for the branded stuff which makes it cheaper than the own brand, I get that I'm not prissy with it really and my weekly shopping bill is about £40 and maybe once every 6 weeks we do a £60-70 shop when we have to pick up the stuff we dont need each week. My sister is one of the branded shoppers. For her, her partner and her baby daughter she spends near on £100 a week! It makes me feel nauseous when she shows me her bill. 

AI'm not sure what the healthy eating conversation is about but I'm a cooking from scratch person - I just wish we had more markets or separate greengrocers and butchers where I live. I have found that click and collect has saved me about £30+ a week. I now only get what's on my list. It's brilliant.

AI tried to catch up but gave up lol lol But I did skip through the pics all the cakes look great

A

Do you know Kelsey I've just tried the loose fruit idea and you're right I got a massive bunch of loose bananas for 71p when the pre packaged ones were 98p and were smaller and there were less of them. I was only buying a few bits today mostly for baking bits but when I do I will definitely buy more loose fruit and veg, thanks for the tip Kelsey, we can all learn something new, lol.

Also I agree about the tea and coffee it's worth paying a bit more for plus a lot of the top brands can be picked up in places like home bargains and b&m bargains now.

I would like to shop around like you do Kelsey but I always go for the easy option of going to Asda as I live a 5 minute drive away.

AI hope your Swiss roll turns out okay Chezza!

No problem Loubee! The world is so expensive as it is without these big corporations who take our money and don't pay their taxes! GRR lol

To be honest I used to be a tesco girl through and through when I moved to Swansea but since I'm out of full time work and trying to make it in the big bad world alone we have to do things we didn't before to make sure all the bills are paid and we can eat! And usually that means by wasting a whole day of the week by shopping around. A sacrifice we've both had to make but it saves us around £400 a month instead of sitting on the sofa watching movies!

We tend to plan our meals for the week before we go shopping to. I forgot to mention I get my meat from a halal butcher so on the day before we go shopping I go and check the deal of the week and then hubby and I will sit down and work out what we will do. For instance if the mince meat is on offer, that week we will have spaghetti meatballs, lasagna and an Arabic dish call koobeh which is mince meat covered in potato and then breadcrumbs. If it's chicken we have garlic kievs, curry, grilled chicken salads. You get the just! And that's how we've been doing it.

Although this candida diet is literally killing me and we have another 40 days of it! I thought Ramadan was hard

ANot to forget a HUGE money saver is leftovers! I always freeze leftovers and date them so we can have for lunches etc. also if something is about to go off at the butcher, I get it and freeze it! Even more cheap meals haha

I do the same Kelsey I get what I can from Aldi then bits from asda, iceland and home bargains. asda is 2 minutes walk from my house so I use it like my corner shop if I run out of anything but wouldn't do my full shop there it would cost me a fortune. I spend £40 a week on shopping to but bulk buy chicken breasts and other meat from the butchers when we need it and it lasts for a few months.

Kathy we started talking about that eat well for less that's how we got on to the food conversation.

Chezza hop your swiss roll turns out the way you want it, I've made a shepherds pie for tea so looking forward to that with some steamed veg.

ARoxy it's expensive isn't it? We're trying to save for the wedding too and it's just awful how much stuff is! It's only now that I can really appreciate my mam dropping me off when she went food shopping because I always wanted everything! Haha

It's even worse when you have kids I think so I'm just hoping I get quite established with beauty or my mum in law lets me take over he business when she retires in a couple of years!

Kelsey we are so alike I write a meal menu every two weeks ( use to be every week) I started about a year and a half ago now so we know what we are gonna have and know what we need when we go shopping. I always write a shopping list and always freeze leftovers or bulk cook like make a big lasagne and freeze in portions in tubs. It really does save on shopping.

It is expensive Kelsey, Angel and Mr Roxy have packed lunches to so I have to budget for that to, though Angel was having school dinners when she first started high school which were costing me £40 a month so I was glad when she went back to packed lunches after a few months and all because the line to get dinner was to long and she was fed up waiting in it lol. Worked out well for my purse though.

When are you getting married Kelsey?

Oh definitely Roxy, we are alot alike! I make a family sized pirex dish worth of lasagne and end up freezing 2/3 of it in small lunch sized pots so all you have to do is put it back in the oven for half an hour and add some salad with it. Hubby is even tutored on the art of pulling out of the freezer and putting in the oven now aswell, even got him to stock rotate haha, oldest used first and all that! 

I was going through TONNES of those cheap plastic pots though and it was getting expensive so what I did was I bought glass bottomed lunch boxes so all we have to do is remove the lid and put it directly in the oven on a tray and they are as good as new after a nice soapy wash! I did had to tell him to take it out after breakfast and let it come to room temp before cooking though... this was after an exploded spag bol he put from the freezer to oven... lmao! Funny now, but not when it happened. I made him clean the entire oven and sat him down for an "omg you're a primary teacher you should know this kind of common sense" sort of talk hahah.

I just made a batch of coconut blondies for hubby using coconut flour, coconut milk, egg and xylotol and they turned out pretty darn good! Go me! Haha

Gonna sit with a nice cup of warm lemon and ginger water with some to watch selfridge tonight I think! 

I hope everyone is doing okay? 

@Tiddylicious did you sort it? did you? did you? did yooooou? :D

Oh sorry Roxy, We're hoping to get married on our 10 year anniversary in January 2017 so now it's the saving game! 

AOh my goodness I've had such a bad weekend :'( I came to catch up but I'm too distracted, I got totally scammed on Freecycle, it's only £10 but I'm so annoyed with myself :-( I was after wood to use in the garden... Just shed wood or old planks or something... Well someone replied offering to drop it round for just diesel money, then of course they couldn't make it so said for £20 more they'd DHL it and at that point I realised it was getting dodgy.... So cross grrrr

Trying to relax making wafer flowers with harry Potter in the background at the mo...

Mrs Gray is very good but I can tell she's disappointed in her stupid man!

Haha you've got him well trained then Kelsey. The blondies sound good.

Thats nice to get married on your 10th anniversary, me and Mr Roxy celebrated our 15th anniversary in november but we have no plans to get married, well I have no plans to get married though he would like to.

Awh Gray, that's disappointing :( I'm sure she's okay so don't panic. The best thing is you realised before you sent the other 20, Gosh some people are so awful! :(

I'm sure a nice little cake will swing her around if she's still upset :) 

Roxy that's amazing! 15 years is such a long time! You should get married, if anything it's a chance for a get together and a good catch up with your friends and family!